DTH
Pay DTH operators lost 1.6 mn subscribers in quarter ended 31 March 2022: TRAI
Mumbai: The number of pay direct-to-home (DTH) subscribers decreased sharply from 68.52 million to 66.92 million in the quarter ended on 31 March 2022, as per latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) performance indicator report. It has lost a total of 1.6 million subscribers during the period.
DTH operators have seen a consistent decline in their subscribers since reporting an all-time high of 70.99 million subscribers in December 2022.
Also read: DTH segment expands its subscriber base by 1.01 mn in 2020 | Indian Television Dot Com
The number of private satellite TV channels permitted by the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) for uplinking or downlinking also decreased from 909 to 898 channels. Broadcasters reported 345 pay channels down from 350 pay channels in the quarter ended on 31 December 2021. The number of free-to-air (FTA) channels also declined from 543 to 540 during the same period.
Tata Play continued to be the leading DTH operator with 33.23 per cent market share down from 33.48 per cent in the previous quarter. Bharat Telemedia’s share stood at 26.24 per cent down from 26.37 per cent.
Also Read: Geo-targeted campaigns ramp up as brands go hyperlocal
Dish TV India increased its market share from 22.04 per cent to 22.10 per cent. Sun Direct also increased its market share from 18.11 per cent to 18.43 per cent.
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As per the ministry, there are 1764 registered multi-system operators (MSOs) in the country.
There are 12 MSOs and 1 headend-in-the-sky (HITS) operator whose subscriber base is more than one million, according to the TRAI data.
GTPL Hathway widened its lead as the largest MSO in the January-February-March 2022 quarter with 8,232,240 subscribers followed by SITI Networks at 7,281,041, Hathway Digital at 5,455,919 and Hathway Digital 4,458,103 subscribers.
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There were 20 internet protocol TV operators in the country as of 31 March 2022.
DTH
Prasar Bharati’s WAVES earns Rs 2.9 crore in first year
Platform scales content, users but monetisation gaps limit revenue growth.
MUMBAI: Big waves, small ripples at least for now. When Prasar Bharati launched its OTT platform WAVES at the 55th International Film Festival of India in November 2024, it pitched a bold vision: a homegrown rival to global and domestic streaming giants, blending video, audio, gaming and commerce into a single digital ecosystem. Five months into FY2024–25, however, the platform’s revenue stands at just Rs 2.90 crore, a figure that underscores the gap between ambition and monetisation.
On paper, WAVES looks anything but modest. The platform has ingested 13,608 titles, totalling 9,495 hours of content, with over 13,000 titles already live. It has streamed more than 575 live events from the Mahakumbh Amrit Snan and the 76th Republic Day parade to the Hockey India League, Kabaddi World Cup and Mann Ki Baat while offering 74 live TV channels and 12 radio channels. With over 10 lakh registered users and more than 200 content partners onboarded, the scale resembles that of a fully operational streaming service rather than a pilot project.
The architecture supporting this scale is equally robust. Built under Prasar Bharati’s Central Archives vertical, WAVES runs on a cloud-based infrastructure with DRM, encryption and an integrated analytics dashboard. It includes dedicated units for content ingestion, quality control, publishing, graphics, marketing and billing, and is distributed across platforms such as OTTplay, Tata Play and BSNL. The offering extends beyond video to include audio-on-demand, e-games and even e-commerce via ONDC integration.
Yet, the numbers reveal a core disconnect. Despite its scale, WAVES generated just Rs 2.90 crore in a market where India’s OTT industry crossed Rs 23,000 crore in 2024. A key bottleneck lies in monetisation infrastructure: subscriptions cannot currently be purchased within the app and must be completed via an external website. In a mobile-first country where over 95 per cent of OTT consumption happens on smartphones, this extra step creates friction that most users are unlikely to overcome.
Ironically, content is not the problem, it is the platform’s biggest strength. Prasar Bharati holds one of the world’s richest broadcast archives, including 45,154 hours of digitised Akashvani programming and 35,723 hours from Doordarshan. For WAVES alone, over 3,800 hours of archival content have been made OTT-ready, including classics such as Ramayan and Shaktimaan, alongside rare cultural recordings and historical broadcasts.
There are early signs that this library holds commercial potential. Revenue from archival content licensing rose sharply to Rs 3.38 crore in FY24, up from Rs 67 lakh the previous year. Meanwhile, free digital platforms continue to drive massive reach, the PB Archives Youtube channel clocked 119.78 million views and added 4,02,000 subscribers in FY2024–25, crossing 1.7 million in total, while DD News has over 5.84 million subscribers.
That, however, presents a strategic dilemma. While free distribution builds scale, it also conditions audiences to expect content at zero cost making it harder to transition to paid models. WAVES, designed as a hybrid AVOD-SVOD platform with advertising and subscription layers, is yet to fully crack this balance.
The broader challenge is not technological but strategic. In an ecosystem dominated by platforms offering seamless payments, aggressive pricing and high-budget originals, WAVES is still bridging the gap between being a content repository and a commercially viable product.
For now, the platform reflects both promise and paradox. It has the scale, the content and the infrastructure but until monetisation catches up, WAVES remains less a revenue engine and more a digital showcase of what India’s public broadcaster could become.
